morbiusandneo
Sr. Member
- Jun 16, 2007
- 392
- 50
- Detector(s) used
- Dowsing rods
Question for "old-timers" or just seasoned cache/treasure hunters.
Anyone ever hear the term "silver plate" related to identifying a potential treasure cache? Let me explain. About 7-8 years ago I was into this stuff pretty seriously.Did my research as best I could to convince myself that a target(or several targets) even still existed in the ground. Well, to make this brief, I had located on such area, and sent my USGS map of to my trusted map-dowser who lived in Idaho(I'm Chicago native). 2 weeks and $25 later I receive the map in the mail with several spots marked at a particular intersection out in the boonies(80 miles west of chicago).He has notes that identify that there are 3 spots in relative close proxinity of one another. he says different crooks buried each at different times, but that all are related to robberies performed at a now non-existant wooden bridge back in the late 1860's or thereabouts. Hmm....very enticing & interesting!!So, I get to the intersection, and do as he taught me by phone & video recordings(and my personal practice) to use dowsing rods.Well, they keep bringing me to a same spot that is not as far south from that intersection, but on the opposite side of the road where he marked the 3 locations.I spent several hours at this coming in from many directions and always the same result. Perplexed, when I get back home I tell him all about it, and he tells me take a picture of the spot the rods keep leading me to with an SX-70 Polaroid camera at night! He says that silver will show a blue "ray" on the film, and gold will show red "ray".Well, whatdya know, I get a deep blue image of what looks like a blue light saber(like in Star wars flicks) "ray" going straight up and down with nothing else in the picture(it is all completely black, except for this bue "ray").I mail it off to him, and he sends it back writing that I found a big silver cache of "silver plate".He writes that it is about 30-60 feet in front of where I took the pic from. This correlates to my field dowsing which I estimated I was taking the shot from about 25 feet from where my rods kept leading me. I did end up digging a hole about 3 feet down, and got really excitede when I could feel something down there with my shovel, then hands. Turned out to be an almost perfectly square piece of rather heavy sandstone(I thought sandstaone was rather light as far as rocks go, but it weighs like the same as a piece of granite that size would weigh in my estimation) about 3 inches square and 3/4 inch thick. I thought it was the corner of a chest when first feeling it down there in the bottom of the hole. After removing that rock, I stuck my probe in again and probed in a flare-out direction several directions and hit nothing down there. Sheesh.... all that digging and nothing!!Tooks many more pics but could never repeat the same image on film again, yet rods always brought me there again & again....Left, and ended treasure-hunting "carreer" up until about a month ago! It was the very last of many, many empty holes!!That digging is mighty hard work foolks! Even in this midwest loamy or sandy (or semi-clay) region which gets a considerable amount of moisture! That is compared to the southwest region! dry ground just gotta be way harder to dig, i can imagine. So, I have oodles of respect for all you hunters out there in the Southwest digging your signals!! So, i guess I got 2 questions(I sincerely hope I posted this in the right area, I'm a newbie novice). First, has anyone heard of "silver plate" identifying a silver treasure? What is it? As I recall, he(my now deceased dowser buddy!Boy was he a character! Someone with salt & to ride the river with, i tell you! I miss him....) also stated that it might be a silver ore vein, very rich, but that veins don't show that way on the film from his experience.Hence his conclusion it must be "silver plate". Second question relates to this rock I brought up which I mistakenly thought was the corner of a chest or container of some sort. I have read here at the various forums on 2 threads now that sometimes some concealed caches/treasures get covered with rocks right after they are inserted into the hole, and recovered with the local dirt. Maybe my heavy "sandstone" rock was such a rock?Like I said, it had no marks on it excluding from my initial probe and consequent shovel marks when I hit it digging..... All of your input on this would be greatly appreciated, as i'm thinking on revisitting this one! Also, I can't be sure, but somehwre in my memory I "think" he said "Spanish" when using that term, but I ain't positive! i AM positive he said SILVER PLATE, though....And, I do recall he was very excited about this one solely because of the picture I sent to him. It was just a fallow field with the closest houses being about 300 & 600 feet away.steven.
Anyone ever hear the term "silver plate" related to identifying a potential treasure cache? Let me explain. About 7-8 years ago I was into this stuff pretty seriously.Did my research as best I could to convince myself that a target(or several targets) even still existed in the ground. Well, to make this brief, I had located on such area, and sent my USGS map of to my trusted map-dowser who lived in Idaho(I'm Chicago native). 2 weeks and $25 later I receive the map in the mail with several spots marked at a particular intersection out in the boonies(80 miles west of chicago).He has notes that identify that there are 3 spots in relative close proxinity of one another. he says different crooks buried each at different times, but that all are related to robberies performed at a now non-existant wooden bridge back in the late 1860's or thereabouts. Hmm....very enticing & interesting!!So, I get to the intersection, and do as he taught me by phone & video recordings(and my personal practice) to use dowsing rods.Well, they keep bringing me to a same spot that is not as far south from that intersection, but on the opposite side of the road where he marked the 3 locations.I spent several hours at this coming in from many directions and always the same result. Perplexed, when I get back home I tell him all about it, and he tells me take a picture of the spot the rods keep leading me to with an SX-70 Polaroid camera at night! He says that silver will show a blue "ray" on the film, and gold will show red "ray".Well, whatdya know, I get a deep blue image of what looks like a blue light saber(like in Star wars flicks) "ray" going straight up and down with nothing else in the picture(it is all completely black, except for this bue "ray").I mail it off to him, and he sends it back writing that I found a big silver cache of "silver plate".He writes that it is about 30-60 feet in front of where I took the pic from. This correlates to my field dowsing which I estimated I was taking the shot from about 25 feet from where my rods kept leading me. I did end up digging a hole about 3 feet down, and got really excitede when I could feel something down there with my shovel, then hands. Turned out to be an almost perfectly square piece of rather heavy sandstone(I thought sandstaone was rather light as far as rocks go, but it weighs like the same as a piece of granite that size would weigh in my estimation) about 3 inches square and 3/4 inch thick. I thought it was the corner of a chest when first feeling it down there in the bottom of the hole. After removing that rock, I stuck my probe in again and probed in a flare-out direction several directions and hit nothing down there. Sheesh.... all that digging and nothing!!Tooks many more pics but could never repeat the same image on film again, yet rods always brought me there again & again....Left, and ended treasure-hunting "carreer" up until about a month ago! It was the very last of many, many empty holes!!That digging is mighty hard work foolks! Even in this midwest loamy or sandy (or semi-clay) region which gets a considerable amount of moisture! That is compared to the southwest region! dry ground just gotta be way harder to dig, i can imagine. So, I have oodles of respect for all you hunters out there in the Southwest digging your signals!! So, i guess I got 2 questions(I sincerely hope I posted this in the right area, I'm a newbie novice). First, has anyone heard of "silver plate" identifying a silver treasure? What is it? As I recall, he(my now deceased dowser buddy!Boy was he a character! Someone with salt & to ride the river with, i tell you! I miss him....) also stated that it might be a silver ore vein, very rich, but that veins don't show that way on the film from his experience.Hence his conclusion it must be "silver plate". Second question relates to this rock I brought up which I mistakenly thought was the corner of a chest or container of some sort. I have read here at the various forums on 2 threads now that sometimes some concealed caches/treasures get covered with rocks right after they are inserted into the hole, and recovered with the local dirt. Maybe my heavy "sandstone" rock was such a rock?Like I said, it had no marks on it excluding from my initial probe and consequent shovel marks when I hit it digging..... All of your input on this would be greatly appreciated, as i'm thinking on revisitting this one! Also, I can't be sure, but somehwre in my memory I "think" he said "Spanish" when using that term, but I ain't positive! i AM positive he said SILVER PLATE, though....And, I do recall he was very excited about this one solely because of the picture I sent to him. It was just a fallow field with the closest houses being about 300 & 600 feet away.steven.